Ugo Rondinone, Vocabulary of Solitude, 2016
Vocabulary of Solitude (2016) by Ugo Rondinone, presented with the artist’s new directions customized for the space of PODO Museum, greets viewers with 45 clown sculptures resting deeply in different postures. The tiresome faces of the clowns, each in colorful and flamboyant costumes and makeup, seem to give viewers sheer joy at first sight. But their feelings soon transform into something else: a strange sense of déjà vu. The clowns, named after 45 terms of solitude, expressions of the time when one is alone, capture the multi-layered feelings of modern people in bright and witty forms. At the same time, however, they impart a sense of the melancholy of modern people who have a hard time connecting with each other, despite the shared solitude that is fundamental to all.
Ugo Rondinone, Long Last Happy, 2020
Long Last Happy (2020), installed on the exterior wall of PODO Museum, is a piece from the artist’s “rainbow neon” series, decorating the beginning and end of the exhibition. The semi-circle that resembles a rainbow and its six vivid colors catches the eye of viewers and leads them to ponder the poetic implications of the universal phrase “long last happy”.
